Friday, October 02, 2009

End Game

We've heard a lot of about Denis Coderre's "leadership ambitions" this week. And, at least among Liberals I know outside of Quebec, this topic has usually drawn snickers.

Coderre certainly didn't help his already Volpeskian chances by going out in a self-destructive blaze of glory Monday, blaming the party's problems on a Toronto-heavy brain trust. Maybe it was a clever ploy to position himself as an outsider against Toronto in a future leadership race - but given what we know about Coderre, I have some doubts about that.

Then again, perhaps the LPC isn't the Liberal Party Coderre hopes to one day lead. Given his organizational muscle in the province, he'd certainly be a legitimate contender provincially once Jean Charest eventually calls it a day. And distancing himself from the federal Liberals and playing the "Toronto card" probably won't hurt him among the Quebec militants.

I don't have any anonymous senior Liberal strategists to go on for this - just the musings of a fairly bright Liberal who floated the idea to me yesterday. But it's a theory that makes a bit of sense once you think about it.

5 Comments:

You Liberal friend is right, but he is hardly bright for such an obvious deduction. He knows for a fact that Coderre can't seriously hope to lead the federal Liberal party without the support of the Toronto Liberal establishment, which he deliberatley torched.

Coderre might be many things, but in this he is absolutley correct - the Liberal party and its current leadership is entirely too Toronto centred to have the national appeal it needs to win power. Rosedale Gang, indeed.

CG, no offense, that is absolutely ridiculous. Unless it was all a brilliant ploy to say something so crazy about QC Liberal politics (PLQ & PLCQ) that it would reinforce the view that the party is completely Toronto-centric and clueless re. QC and so strengthen the position of the QC wing - you wonderful brilliant Quebecophile, you! Nous l'apprécions. It's the kind of mad intriguing we like. If that was the plan, let me congratulate you, since Hébert has made note on her blog and is mocking you. But that's EXACTLY what you wanted! Ha, last laugh's on you Hébert. Now we will get more attention to QC issues and the QC wing will be further empowered (and who doesn't like that?). And since that will inevitably strengthen the nationalists brought in from the PLQ, like Fournier, who's a great guy and maybe the best parliamentary performer alive, but waaay nationalist, ummm, yeah, at this point I lose the plot. But I'm pretty sure the conclusion is GK as PM, uniting the country around a pan-Canadian somehow or other. If you can explain the steps between the rise of the PLQ nationalists within the PLC and GK's glory, I'd appreciate it, though. But maybe that's "hush hush for your eyes only top secret"? Or like the greatest mad intriguer of all, Jean-Claude Rivest, it's all too complicated to explain, so a shrug and a wink will do (Rivest loves to explain how seemingly contradictory things, like, satirically, QC declaring indepedence, actually reinforces Cda with QC unity).